Janos is quite sure that if the Eastern Empire conquered Valdemar, the Valdemarans would be very unhappy. He is equally sure that they'd be much, much better off; between aqueducts, canals and indoor plumbing, the plummeting disease rates would more than pay for the imperial taxes without even considering gains in agriculture or mining. They can afford uniforms for their army, at least, which suggests that they aren't quite as poor as they could be, though he frankly thinks that's a lower priority than canals. Or gates. Do they even know what land travel costs do to all society's wealth? They ought to, they've been paying them!

Janos does not, personally, know how to build aqueducts in more than very broad detail. He does, however, know exactly how to open a Gate back to a minor city in the Eastern Empire, send someone who speaks the Imperial language with a strong Hardornen accent to the city's street of booksellers, and purchase every book on civil engineering they have. He is frankly surprised that Hardorn hasn't already done that, and that it has not thereby made it to Valdemar, but he supposes someone had to be first.

Neither the book nor the map have any answers to his questions. 

He continues to get quite generous attention from the Healers, and now that he's more alert, he can notice that the state-of-the-art in Healing actually seems to be very, very good, enough to rival the Palace Healers and solidly exceed most of the city Healers' skill. The red-haired man who introduced himself as Andrel comes back three times over the course of the afternoon and evening, with different trainees each time, and seems to be using this as a teaching opportunity. When they come to properly change his bandages, just before shift change, the wound is entirely knitted closed, though still puckered and angry-red. 

The supper they bring him is just as good as lunch. 

Excellent! In that case, he's going to keep reading, keep recovering, keep scrying, keep being friendly with the healers, make some tentative attempts to learn the language, and assume that Valdemar's leadership will want to talk to him once they've sorted out just what else they'll want to tell him.

The Senior Circle meets. In Vanyel's room at the House of Healing, again; he's been trying to insist that he's well enough to return to his own quarters, and Gemma has declared that he's welcome to do that 'as soon as he can walk there himself'. (Right now, he can barely make it across the room.) 

"So your impression is that we should trust him," Randi says flatly. 

"...I mean. Not fully. But - I think he means it, that he wants things to go well rather than badly - that he cares about people's wellbeing. And he can't go back, and sabotaging us won't help the Empire with anything." 

"Wants things to go well rather than badly, huh?" Savil says dryly. "He's from the Eastern Empire. Where apparently it's normal for successions to involve literal assassins!" 

"Yes. It's...all he knows, I think. He seems somewhat in awe that we don't have constant civil wars? And I think he may have some more surprises coming. But - he thinks well of the Empire. He's compulsioned to be loyal to it, but he's...trying to be loyal to a thing that's good, I think? Melody thought he'd built a lot of himself around that. And that that's why he wants to help us, it's - the same drive." 

"Really." 

"He can't detect Truth Spells. He said under a first-stage Truth Spell that he cared about the flourishing of all people, and he didn't know it was there, he had no reason to try to talk around it." 

"Huh." Tran sounds a little dubious, but also a little impressed. 

"So. What do you think we should do with him?" 

"I think we should introduce him to you and the rest of the Senior Circle. Get some of his advice on internal policy, maybe. And - find out what he needs to confirm for himself about Karse before he'd be willing to help us end this war." 

A long pause. 

"- You think he could do that." 

Vanyel shrugs. "I don't know. It may be that a lot of the military tactics he was educated in won't work here - the Empire has more mages, more resources, and - different rules of engagement. I'm pretty sure they use blood-magic in warfare, for one. But - he's got an outside perspective. I think he's one of the best opportunities we have, right now." 

"And you're sure he won't be suddenly compelled to murder me as soon as we're in the same room?" 

"I'm sure he would know that was a great way to end up dead five seconds later! Which means it doesn't serve the interests of the Empire! Randi, he fled rather than die - he found a way to work with his compulsions so that was his best route forward. I don't think he's going to change his strategy there." 

Randi nods. Sighs heavily. 

"Is he actually recovered enough for proper meetings." 

"I can check with Gemma in the morning." 

"My sense from talking to him is that he's not going to be up for major casting - or fighting - for a while, but he's probably fine to sit in a meeting-room for a while? I am, and I was injured worse than him." 

Savil raises her eyebrows, but lets this slide. 

"All right. Let's go ahead and call it a night now, and - Tran, figure out when I could be available tomorrow to meet with him." 

Janos is left alone and has a very restful night. In the morning, one of the Healing-trainees brings him breakfast, and then Gemma has a look at him before heading out, and declares that he's recovered enough to walk down the hall and take an actual bath, if he would like that. "You'll just want to avoid getting the bandages wet. One of the trainees can help you. - Would you like to borrow some clothes? We tried to wash yours but the bloodstains didn't come out." 

She's already received the message from Tran asking her if her patient is well enough to leave the House of Healing, and whether she would clear him to attend meetings or do desk work. She is going to let Andrel make the call on that, once they see how well he can manage bathing and how tired out he is afterward. 

Certainly he would! Both the bath and "the clothes, thank you greatly, Healer Gemma." 

(He can collect the important things from his old clothes and conceal them about his new, after all, and going around in a bloodstained shirt will hardly help him look capable or recovered.) 

He seems capable of bathing without too much difficulty, though he's more tired than he looks - concealing exhaustion is a very useful survival skill, in the Empire, not to mention important for an officer to keep his men's faith in him high.

It's harder to hide from Healing-Sight, but Andrel lets it slide. The man does at least seem able to get out of bed, walk, bathe himself, and put on clothing unaided and without too much (visible) pain, and he hasn't had any drugs for it since yesterday. 

He still gives him a candlemark afterward, though, both to give him a chance to rest if he wants to nap when no one's looking, and because he has kind of a lot of other things on his plate this morning. 

After that, though, he swings by again. "You're looking much better today. I don't think you need more Healing attention - would you feel ready to move out of your room here to one of the guest suites in the Palace? Also, the King is interested in speaking with you, and would be available to meet this afternoon, but it's entirely understandable if you need another day of rest." 

He can predict already that, although he's not a Herald, this man is enough like the Heralds that he absolutely won't say he needs another day even if he does. At some point, though, there's not much you can do about that. 

He does not need another day. He could possibly benefit from one, but the faster you move, the faster you can accomplish your goals.

(The candlemark is spent on making sure his personal wards are all functional, even in the change of clothes, and also that if he has to Gate to Rethwellan he'll have the funds to pay his own way, if he needs to.)

"I appreciate the King's gracious offer, and would be pleased to meet with him whenever he wishes." Ideally he can also get to his suite fast enough to de-knife; he doesn't think the king of Valdemar would be amused to know that his new visitor had multiple blades on him, no matter how superfluous edged weapons were for Adepts.